Sturdy for Common Things

Chinese New Year Good Luck Decorations

It is almost the Lunar New Year, which means we have been busy making good luck decorations for our home to welcome the new year. One of the most popular Lunar New Year decorations is hanging good luck characters, nianhua, as well as spring couplets, chun lian, good wishes for the new year on doors and door frames.

The Lunar New Year starts on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice and is a fifteen day celebration ending with the Lantern Festival (this year’s and next year’s dates). When I was a children’s librarian, I learned a great deal from my storytime patrons about Chinese festivals and the Lunar Calendar, especially during the time of the Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year), the most celebrated and sensational of the holidays. We’ve enjoyed learning about these holidays, stories, and traditions over the years so much that we honor and celebrate them in our home. If you’re interested in more books and crafts, take a look at my past Chinese New Year Storytimes HERE and HERE.

 

Chinese New Year Good Luck Characters

This craft is a modification of an activity found in the book Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes. Good luck characters written in the finest calligraphy on red diamonds are hung on doors in preparation for the new year.  Often times special red paper with gold flecks is used. We made these last year and this year, so you will see a bit of a difference between the two.

MATERIALS
red card stock or red construction paper
gold watercolor paint
black tempera paint or acrylic paint
paintbrushes
ruler
pencil
scissors

First, depending on the size of your paper, with a ruler and pencil you’re going to want to measure an 8″ or 9” square and cut off the excess paper. Once you’ve cut out your red diamonds, splatter gold flecks onto your paper by flicking gold water color paint or gold tempera paint. We made gold flecks by coating the tip of a small paint brush with gold watercolor paint and lightly hitting the brush on a pointer finger close to the paper. You can also make small dots and dabs with your paintbrush. Whatever creative process works for your child.

Once the gold paint has dried, it’s time to paint the Chinese characters on. On these types of Lunar New Year decorations, the Chinese characters used symbolize good fortune, spring, good luck, or the the featured animal zodiac character of the new year. Perhaps the most popular character is the Fú and when hung upside down it means good luck is coming.  This is an excellent template for painting the Fú character, and this site has more character examples, or try painting the animal zodiac symbol of the new year.

Can you see the difference between the past couple years we’ve been making these characters? There’s a terrific scene from a Mister Rogers Neighborhood episode (episode 1704) where he visits with a Chinese calligrapher. Mister Rogers does a wonderful job introducing this art to children and watching it is a good foundation for this particular activity. If you’re interested in showing this episode, it can be accessed via Amazon Prime. Another complementary activity to learning about Chinese calligraphy is reading The Dinner That Cooked Itself by J.C. Hsyu, illustrated by Kenard Pak, a beautifully illustrated Chinese fairy tale with notes about Chinese characters at the end of the book.

Spring Couplets

Spring Couplets are special new year poems that carry good wishes for the new year. They have the same amount of characters on each side and are painted on long banners that hang from each side of a doorway. We also make a “Happy New Year” (新年快樂) greeting that goes on the top of the door between the two couplets.

MATERIALS
large piece of red construction paper or red poster board
black tempera paint
paintbrush
scissors
gold metallic markers or paint pen (optional)

Start by cutting your large piece of red paper or poster board into two long strips that are equal length. Once you’ve cut your strips of paper, it’s to time to paint the characters on the banners. Examples of spring couplets can be found here and here or find one online that suits your wishes for the new year.

When the paint has dried, your banners are ready to be hung! Or add further decorations by outlining the characters in gold or drawing pictures or details in gold marker on the banner! Happy New Year!

 

Painted Lanterns for the Lantern Festival

On the 15th day of the Lunar New Year the celebration ends with the Lantern Festival. Celebrate by making hand painted lanterns! We made the lanterns pictured last autumn and they’ve recently been revived from storage as decorations for the Lunar New Year and the Lantern Festival. Here’s how you can to make your own.

 

Books to Read for Chinese New Year

Here’s a short list of favorite books about the the Chinese New Year kids will enjoy reading during this festive time of year:

Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes by Nina Simonds, Leslie Swartz, illustrated by Meilo So
Bringing In the New Year by Grace Lin
Dragon Dance: A Chinese New Year Lift-the-Flap Book (Lift-the-Flap, Puffin) by Joan Holub
Dragon Dancing by Pierr Morgan, illustrated by Carole Lexa Schaefer
Long-Long’s New Year: A Story About the Chinese Spring Festival by Catherine Gower, illustrated by He Zhihong
Hiss! Pop! Boom!: Celebrating Chinese New Year by Tricia Morissey, illustrated by Kong Lee
Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan’s Chinese New Year (Reading Rainbow Books) by Kate Waters
Great Race by Dawn Casey, illustrated by Anne Wilson
A New Year’s Reunion by Yu Li-Quiong
Chinese and English Nursery Rhymes: Share and Sing in Two Languages [Audio CD Included] by Faye-Lynn Wu, illustrated by Kieren Dutcher
Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Chinese New Year: With Fireworks, Dragons, and Lanterns by Carolyn Otto